Amazon goes slower

Amazon's revenues slowed in the first quarter as the world's largest Internet retail struggled overseas.

The company reported that margins jumped on lower shipping expenses and the expansion of more profitable new businesses.

It would appear that things are looking up in the US but on the international markets Amazon is not doing so well.

Europe's economies, which have been raped by austerity demands, are harming corporate sales in the region. EBay, Amazon's main rival, also reported disappointing results last week and noted European weakness.

Amazon's revenue rose 22 percent to $16.07 billion, with most of the cash coming from growing sales of digital content, cloud-computing services and gains in its main retail business. However this was a decline from 36 percent growth in the first quarter of last year.

International revenue rose 16 percent in the most-recent quarter, down from a 31 percent growth rate last year.

Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak said Amazon was suffering in the same way that others were.

Amazon has also struggled to grow in China but Szkutak believes that the company is still in "investment mode" in that country so that is nothing to worry about for now.

Total year-over-year unit growth, which measures the number of items Amazon sells, was 30 percent in the first quarter, down from 49 percent in the first quarter of 2012.

The cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street wanted to see second-quarter revenue of $15.94 billion and operating results of $452 million.

The figures do show that, despite weaker growth and a cautious forecast, Amazon is becoming more profitable.

Amazon is currently building distribution warehouses closer to customers, reducing shipping costs. It has also been charging third-party merchants on its marketplace higher fees for shipping and warehouse storage.